Combined Programme: Afterthoughts and Disappearances
N’importe quoi (for Brunhild)
Luke Fowler / 2023 / UK / 9’ / 16mm / French and English spoken
An evocative portrait of “musique concrete” composer Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari, shot by Luke Fowler over a few hours spent together in March 2023. Brunhild is filmed in her studio, amongst her tapes and equipment, but also recording sound for the film in the streets of Paris, in public spaces such as a park and at Gare de l’Est, where trains from Germany arrive. Brunhild herself moved from Frankfurt to Paris in 1959 where she would meet and marry the composer Luc Ferrari. She was his closest collaborator for 40 years, and in the two decades since he passed away, she’s taken care of the preservation of his archive, and she’s released her own music.
Marble Film Part I & Marble Film Part II
Lucy Harris / 2024 / UK / 12’ / 16mm & dual 16mm projection/ silent
Composed in black and white 16mm, Marble Film Part I is a precise study of the stone carver Lida Kindersley at work in her studio. Filmmaker Lucy Harris carefully observes her movements and gestures across the stone to explore the transformative possibilities of handling materials – marble, paper and film itself. Marble Film Part II is a dual 16mm projection in which marble becomes the subject for a series of experiments in form, light, colour and scale.
“In life I am drawn towards observing people’s hands – the delicacy with which a material or object is handled, the way that a pencil is held and a line drawn. For me these gestures express the possibilities of (internal) creative dialogue and intimacy. That the line gets drawn and an object or form appears remains a source of continued excitement.” (Lucy Harris)
Afterthoughts of a Walk on the Naze
Louis Henderson / 2023 / UK / 30’ / Digital / English spoken
“In the year of his death, my great-uncle, the artist Nigel Henderson, wrote a letter addressed to my future self. In his letter, he asked me to decipher a painting he made of the fossilized cliffs at Walton on the Naze in Essex, in the east of England. As a clue, he sent me a photocopied manuscript of a book by a South American novelist called Wilson Harris, who lived nearby in Essex. Afterthoughts of a Walk on the Naze is my attempt at answering his letter. I revisit the house and studio where he made the painting and film the surrounding seascape/riverscape and the cliffs the painting references. Harris’ book, the landscapes and the painting work together in counterpoint, revealing ideas about artistic inheritance, creation, death, weather and time.” (Louis Henderson)
Disappearances
James Edmonds / 2023 / UK, Germany / 5’ / Super 8 / sound
An impressionistic diary film constructed from fragmented images of a winter spent in the English countryside. Sunlight filters through clouds, rain, and bare tree branches to reach the warmth of a domestic space, while flashes of Christmas tree lights, a pair of ice skates, and a chilly trip to the beach evoke the ephemeral sensations of our seasonal routines. “My first visit to England after a gap of two years, it’s as if I’m discovering each subject for the first time. Objects picked up one by one. Every form seems to contain its dissolution, a premonition of loss. Holding on to the edge of a cloud, a hungry ghost throws its wishes to the sea”. (James Edmonds)
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.